{"doi":"10.1101/2025.06.16.25329587","title":"Practice effects persist over two decades of cognitive testing: Implications for longitudinal research","abstract":"Background: Repeated cognitive testing can boost scores due to practice effects (PEs), yet it remains unclear whether PEs persist across multiple follow-ups and long durations. We examined PEs across multiple assessments from midlife to old age in a nonclinical sample. Method: Men (N=1,608) in the Vietnam Era Twin Study of Aging (VETSA) underwent neuropsychological assessment comprising 30 measures across 4 waves (~6-year testing intervals) spanning up to 20 years. We leveraged age-matched replacement participants to estimate PEs at each wave. We compared cognitive trajectories and MCI prevalence using unadjusted versus PE-adjusted scores. Results: Across follow-ups, a range of 7-12 tests (out of 30) demonstrated significant PEs, especially in episodic memory and visuospatial domains. Adjusting for PEs resulted in improved detection of cognitive decline and MCI, with up to 20% higher MCI prevalence. Conclusion: PEs persist across multiple assessments and decades underscoring the importance of accounting for PEs in longitudinal studies.","journal":"medRxiv","year":2025,"id":568688,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":0,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9113,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2025-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":750514,"name":"Erik Buchholz","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1473837,"name":"Rouhui Chen","orcid":null,"position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":486271,"name":"Mark Sanderson‐Cimino","orcid":"0000-0002-5872-3186","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":463718,"name":"Tyler Bell","orcid":"0000-0001-5702-5995","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":585573,"name":"Nathan Whitsel","orcid":"0000-0003-2413-4903","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":316754,"name":"Katherine J. 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